For nearly two decades, Rhoda Roberts has grappled with an incapacitating dread, harboring the haunting suspicion that the perpetrator who took the life of her twin sister erred in their gruesome act. This unsettling revelation unfolded following a tip-off from the New South Wales police, compelling her to remain vigilant.
Roberts, the esteemed head of Indigenous programming at the Sydney Opera House, has endured a diminished existence since the discovery of her sister Lois's bound, tortured, and dismembered remains in the Whian Whian Forest on the mid-New South Wales north coast in January 1999.
Her voice resonates with poignant emotion as she recounts the moment a detective from a New South Wales homicide squad shared a collection of hand-scrawled notes unearthed in a vehicle weeks after her sister's bones were uncovered.
"They meticulously copied them and presented them to me... My name was inscribed. A substantial cross adorned the notes, alongside depictions of a dam and the trail of Whian Whian," Roberts conveyed to 9Stories.
"The detective devoted three hours to me... He was eager to show me a photograph of this vehicle, consumed by the notion that the perpetrator might come after me.
"The detective surmised, 'Oh, he targeted the wrong sister.'"
Roberts found herself entangled in organizing the Indigenous segment of the opening ceremony for the Sydney Olympics when she received the fateful call announcing her sister's demise. Lois, a mere 39 years old, had been missing for half a year, vanishing from outside Nimbin Police Station in July 1998 after hitchhiking back to her Lismore residence, a New South Wales town just 30 minutes from the idyllic retreat of Byron Bay.
A reserved city bushwalker stumbled upon Lois's remains and her shallow resting place, venturing 30 meters away from his walking companions into the silent, unruly scrub of the Whian Whian forest to heed nature's call.
To this day, justice eludes the memory of the cherished sister, daughter, and mother. Rhoda Roberts, a recipient of the 2016 Order of Australia, shared, "What people fail to grasp is that I grapple with this ordeal every single day. It is an enduring presence," she expressed amidst tears.
"Disputes have arisen within my family. My brothers assert, 'We too have lost a sister.' I counter, asserting they fail to comprehend. I have lost a twin. It is akin to losing a limb."
Ironically, Lois's demise marked the second occasion Roberts mourned the loss of her "feisty twin and protector." At the age of 20, Lois endured a catastrophic brain injury in a car accident. Given little hope of survival, she was placed on a ventilator.
As the family maintained a vigil at Lois's hospital bedside, Roberts, a qualified nurse, implored her father, Frank—a proud Bundjalung man and pastor—to disconnect Lois's ventilator. Defying her plea, he declared, "Where there is breath, there is life," and laid feathers across Lois's body, serenading her with traditional songs. Remarkably, the following day, Lois exhibited signs of brain activity.
However, the gravity of her injuries condemned Lois to a life far removed from the vibrant and spirited person she once was before the accident.
Despite years of police investigations into Lois's case and its potential link to a serial killer preying on female hitchhikers, the trail has run cold. The 2002 inquest into Lois's death yielded no new leads, returning an open finding and suppressing inquest documents.
John Lehmann, the detective chief inspector from the New South Wales Police unsolved homicide team, disclosed that Lois's case, one of approximately 600 cold cases on record, faces a hiatus due to a dearth of fresh evidence.
He implored individuals possessing information about Lois's murder to promptly contact the police, noting that, more often than not, people withhold information out of fear or intimidation. Such news offers scant solace to Roberts and her family. The absence of concrete leads compels them to clutch at fragments of whispered theories.
One theory posits that Lois was picked up by a local man and transported to the Nimbin caravan park, where she endured severe beatings with a wooden slab before being sustained for the subsequent 10 days.
"The last words the caravan owner at Nimbin reportedly heard my sister utter were, 'I know who you are, you’re a paedophile, and I'm going to expose you,'" Roberts revealed.
"Subsequently, he claimed to have heard a sound resembling a 4x4 colliding with a chest."
It is conjectured that she was then bound and subjected to a harrowing 10 days as a captive before meeting her tragic end.
Regrettably, as Roberts recounts, the New South Wales police officers filed a missing person's report on Lois around day 10, failing to perceive her absence as a cause for concern. They presumed she had merely "gone walkabout."
While certainty eludes whether she would have been discovered within those 10 days, Roberts staunchly believes that Lois could have been found alive. A second theory emerged when a Whian Whian forest ranger observed a group of men in a car "lurking" near the fire trail where Lois's remains were eventually found. It is suggested that a local concealed Lois's body in the car's trunk before transporting it into the forest.
A third theory proposes Lois became entangled in a botched jewelry robbery involving local bikers engaged in drug running. Weeks later, these individuals purportedly boasted about the crime at a Gold Coast hotel.
"I meticulously documented all these rumors I've heard over the years about Lois's death, attempting to discern their sanity," Roberts commented. "It's peculiar how various individuals approach me with information. My response is consistent: report it to the police. Alas, they seldom do."
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